joy of cooking

This is not a post about my own joy in the art/chore of cookery, but about the actual book titled Joy of Cooking.

[Do 'titled' and 'entitled' mean the same thing like 'flammable' and 'inflammable' mean? And how very, very annoying.]

Anyway, my dear friend gave me a copy of Joy of Cooking's 75th anniversary edition for my 25th birthday just over a year ago. She wrote in it:

"In my opinion, this cookbook is far superior to any other. I could not live without it. I hope that you enjoy it as much as I do."

[Another side note: Write in books that you give to people. Please, please, please! It will mean so much to them. And when people give you books that have not been written in, if they are close enough, grab a pen and ask them to at least date it and sign their name. If they aren't, write in it yourself "Given to me for Christmas by Uncle Andrew, 2010" or something. Seriously - My kids open every book to the front page to see if they can find who gave it to them. And it is so darling to find notes from grandparents, godparents and special friends. Eason's dear godmother is a bookgiver like I am and she always writes darling notes in them. The kids say, "Yep, this one is from Mellen again" - and so she is always present in their reading mind. And, my dearest friend who gave me Joy of Cooking is always present in my mind when reading it. Also, I use the card that came with it as a bookmark, which helps as well!]

Anyway, she was absolutely correct. I cannot live without it. There are other cookbooks that I love to use and by which much of my culinary taste has been informed- Come On In, Square Table being the two at the top of that list. And then there are other cookbook writers - Nigella Lawson and Robert Capon - who I, quite literally, keep by the bedside. But Joy of Cooking has a recipe for everything. Name something. Look it up. I'll give you a nickel for everything you can come up with that it doesn't have. And you will not be rich.

It does not have the humor or prosaic ability that books like Lawson and Capon write, nor does it have such a high ratio of exciting/yummy/southern greats like Come On In and Square Table (But it's not a Mississippi cookbook, so one cannot really hold that against it), but it is huge. It is a tome if ever there was one. And it is correct. And it is normal. And it does have a bit of wit flowing through it.

Favorite witticism so far is that first of all, there is an actual recipe entry for Tequila Shots, and, second of all, it ends with this sentence:
Repeat the process as often as good sense allows.

Love that. Subtle, but it's there.

Also, there is, what I've come to call, the Joy of Cooking method for writing recipes. The most common method of writing recipes is to list the ingredients:

1/2 ounce tequila
Salt
Lime wedge

And then to write the method:

Pour tequila into a shot glass. Turn one hand sideways as if to shake hands and form into a loose fist, then lick the portion between your thumb and the knuckle of the forefinger. Quickly sprinkle with salt. Drink the tequila in one swallow, then immediately lick the salt off your hand and suck the juice from the lime wedge.

BUT... JOY OF COOKING IS BRILLIANT.

It writes recipes as follows - putting the ingredients in bold and on their own lines so that you can still scan to see what you need, but the ingredients are in context.

Pour into a shot glass

• 1/2 ounce tequila

Turn one hand sideways as if to shake hands and form into a loose fist, then lick the portion between your thumb and the knuckle of the forefinger. Quickly sprinkle with:

• Salt

Drink the tequila in one swallow, then immediately lick the salt off your hand and suck the juice from:

• A lime wedge

Repeat the process as often as good sense allows.

This is just a superior method. It is just great.

Anyway, I've tried a lot of recipes out of Joy Of Cooking - I think there must be thousands, so I haven't quite gotten through it yet. =) And won't, because some of them are completely unappealing to me.

But, I thought I'd flip through and tell you a few of my favorites:

So buy the book - and make (in addition to as many tequila shots as are prudent) the following:

1. Spiced Hot Cocoa, page 36, I left out the ginger
2. Old fashioned lemonade, page 40
3. Champagne Cocktail II, page 53
4. Mulled Wine, page 67, I halfed it.
   
5. Quick Cheese Straws, page 91
6. Tuna-Vegetable Casserole, page 97
7. Pork Shoulder with Mustard and Rosemary Sauce, page 99
   
8. Cheese Quiche, page 109, I add various items - it's fun.
9. Becker Coleslaw
10. Creamy Coleslaw
11. Sauteed Cabbage, page 263, left off sour cream and let wilt longer in saute pan.
12. Fettuccine Alfredo, page 327, This recipe is perfect and I'll never try another. Sometimes I add a grating of nutmeg.
13. Peach Pie, page 679
14. Becker Chicken Marinade, page 585 - best marinade ever

I know I'm forgetting things, but these are the ones that I can recall from memory they are so good. I know there are lots, lots others.

Seriously. Buy the book. Put it on christmas lists. Read through it. It will take me years to try everything I want to try, but I'm working on it.

(Don't make the Baked Macaroni and Cheese for a Crowd.... blahblahblah)

Are you a Joy fan? What's your favorite?